The premise of this thread is simple: I believe that Palpatine has reached such a level of power, that the dark side energies in him feed itself in a perpetuating loop that continues to escalate on its own. In other words, I believe Palpatine gets stronger by doing nothing.

As most of you already know, I have proven that the imbalance of the Force that enveloped the galaxy during Palpatine’s term as Chancellor and Emperor was directly linked to his power in the Force. If you haven’t read my blog, it can be found here:

With this in mind, let’s now take a look at Mace Windu’s observation regarding the state of the Force in Revenge of the Sith:

quote:

To Mace's Force perception, the world crystallized around them, becoming a gem of reality shot through with flaws and fault lines of possibility. This was Mace's particular gift: to see how people and situations fit together in the Force, to find the shear planes that can cause them to break in useful ways, and to intuit what sort of strike would best make the cut. Though he could not consistently determine the significance of the structures he perceived—the darkening cloud upon the Force that had risen with the rebirth of the Sith made that harder and harder with each passing day—the presence of shatterpoints was always clear.

So if the shroud of the dark side made it increasingly harder to perceive shatterpoints with each passing day, then that can only mean the imbalance was growing stronger every day, which means that Palpatine was growing stronger every day. This is supported by the word “darkening” in the above passage, implying it grows darker continuously, and also this tidbit from The Complete Visual Dictionary:

quote:

Beyond the vision of the Jedi Knights, somewhere within the darkness, the greatest master of evil ever to use Sith power bides his time. As his strength grows, his plans begin to shape the course of the galaxy, and his snares await the unsuspecting.

Given how busy Palpatine was being Chancellor, I seriously doubt he’d have much time to devote to dark side studies, at least not to the point where his powers would increase every single day. Thus, the most probable conclusion to make is that Sidious’ power has reached such a level where he no longer needs hone it to grow stronger; it feeds itself in a never-ending cycle, accumulating more and more as time goes by. This effect is actually similar to what’s explained in this video about global warming, that once the Earth’s temperature reaches a certain point, it will start warming up on its own (I know the video is cringey, but just focus on the point, okay?):

Also, it is outright confirmed that as of DE, Sidious has reached a point of growing continuously more powerful:

quote:

Even now, as Luke appears to fall under the Emperor's ever-expanding power, massive engines of destruction are inflicting death blows to the floating cities of the Calamari, long-standing allies of the Rebel Alliance...

-Dark Empire

quote:

But the Emperor cannot be overcome so easily. He gives Leia a painful demonstration of his ever-expanding power, crowing in triumph that he has finally captured the last of the Jedi!

-Dark Empire

quote:

Yes, he grows continually more powerful in the way of the Dark Side.

-Dark Empire Endnotes

The middle quote is particularly interesting, because the instance being referred to as a demonstration of the Emperor’s “ever-expanding” power is this:

(please log in to view the image)

Sidious using Force Lightning on Leia being a demonstration of his ever-expanding power would mean that his Force Lightning and other individual Force powers also increase in potency alongside his overall power. While this may be obvious to most people, I feel like this is still worth pointing out.

And while these quotes are all in regards to DE, it is not out of the question that he had reached this level of connection with the dark side as of AotC or even earlier, per the evidence I presented earlier. Regardless, no other dark side user in the setting has reached this level of power with the dark side of the Force. More proof that Darth Sidious is the undisputed King among darksiders in the history of the galaxy.

But when did he reach this point of power, exactly? Some would say that AotC, due to it being the first mention of the Jedi’s powers decreasing. I, however, believe it to have occurred as early as TPM. Specifically, after Sidious killed his Master Darth Plagueis, when he experienced a gargantuan boost in power and as a result, the tides of the Force shifted further to the dark side. The details are in the “cosmic accomplishments” thread I linked earlier. The passage also notes that ”the dark side had made him its property, and now he made the dark side his.” which further supports the notion. No such thing happened during AotC.

But there is more. If Mace Windu is able to perceive a clear and noticeable darkening in the Force, then that also means Palpatine’s power was growing by a noticeable margin, daily. While there’s no concrete method of quantifying the total increase in power that he underwent during the timespan between his subsequent iterations, we can use calculations to determine his growth, depending of course on how much you believe he grew daily. I have done the calculations with different values and listed them below:

TPM to RotS (13 years, 4745 days):

-0.01 % a day – 114.7 times increase
-0.005 % a day – 10.7 times increase
-0.001 % a day – 1.6 times increase

RotS to RotJ (23 years, 8395 days):

-0.01 % a day – 4406 times increae
-0.005 % a day – 66.4 times increase
-0.001 % a day – 2.3 times increase

RotJ to DE II (7 years, 2555 days):

-0.01 % a day – 12.8 times increase
-0.005 % a day – 3.5 times increase
-0.001 % a day – 1.3 times increase

TPM to RotJ (36 years, 13140 days):

-0.01 % a day – 505566 times increase
-0.005 % a day – 712 times increase
-0.001 % a day – 3.7 times increase

RotS to DE II (30 years, 10950 days):

-0.01 % a day – 56643 times increase
-0.005 % a day – 238 times increase
-0.001 % a day – 3 times increase

TPM to DE II (43 years, 15695 days):

-0.01 % a day – 6.4 million times increase
-0.005 % a day – 2554 times increase
-0.001 % a day – 4.8 times increase

So even with extremely conservative estimates, we get quite a significant power gap between each iteration. This is of course without factoring in his additional dark side studies and the energies he drained from the people of Byss. We must also consider whether Mace Windu’s senses are truly so keen as to perceive a 0.001 % increase in the dark side’s magnitude each day. Keep in mind his senses were being hindered by Sidious. The daily increase may have been one of the other percentages I listed, or something in between. Regardless, the point here being that the gap between Sidious’ subsequent iterations is far wider than most people believe.

It quickly became clear to Luke that this decrepit and seemingly defenseless old man was masterfully adept in the ways of the Dark Side of the Force. Indeed, as Vader had warned, the Emperor had become the Dark Side's most powerful expression.

—Dark Empire endnotes

Sidious > Abeloth. Like Exar.

__________________Through passion, I gain the will to act.
Through that will, I gain the power to destroy.
Everything.